DUE to roll into Glasgow's SECC on one of its three-yearly sorties north of the Border, this weekend's Giant CD and Record Fair is once again set to live up to the adjectival promise of its title as around 400 dealers from all over Britain unveil a huge variety of rare records and musical memorabilia, attracting vendors from continental Europe, Japan, and Australia.
Similarly, when the fair's Leicester-based organisers, VIP Events, seek to sate the vinyl appetites of music
buffs in London and Birmingham, they do so in such prestigious venues as Wembley Arena, Olympia Exhibition Centre, and the National Indoor Arena.
Not that the event's progress to mega-status has been easy or instantaneous, as VIP founder, Rob Lythall will attest. ''Everything stems from my time as a northern soul DJ at the Wigan Casino about 20 years ago,'' says Lythall.
''I became used to buying and selling rare records, dealing with collectors, and dealing with record outlets in the States. It seemed logical to take a stall at a record fair, but the first one I went to was such a shambles, I felt sure I could organise one better myself.
''Our first fair was staged within the confines of a badminton court upstairs at the local YMCA in Leicester. Since then we've grown to such an extent that over the past five years we've
become the SECC's most regular renters.''
This weekend's biggest Giant CD and Record Fair attraction? The 3000 albums and 5000 singles which constitute the collection of a former Radio One DJ. An ultra-rare DJ-only copy of the Beatles' White Album is the centre-piece of this collection. The disc's publicity-shy original owner - could he perhaps be related to a Kilmarnock whisky company? - has had it valued at #2000.
Other Beatles memorabilia - genuine sixties badges and scarves, plus reproductions - will be on sale from a couple of enterprising English geezers who bill themselves as the Beatles Roadshow, while a local poster-merchant will have 20 colourful metres of his wares on display.
Chiefly, of course, the vinyl-obsessed and CD-fixated will be able head SECC-wards in order to peruse discular artifacts from every era and from every genre: jazz to country, punk to rock'roll, indie to rave, northern soul
to classical.
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